When you talk about consistency in the NFL certainly Peyton Manning comes to mind, but how about his team? The Colts have won 10 games this year and haven’t had to rely on Manning for every win. It helps when he is having monster games, but when he is not, the defense has to step up. The emotional leader of this defense is Gary Brackett. Brackett is the Colts’ middle linebacker and a starter on one of the most unheralded, underrated and underappreciated defenses in the NFL. That would be the Colts’ defense, a group that just preserved the team’s seventh straight defeat of the Ravens by stopping them three times from the 1, breaking up a last gasp comeback with an interception and keeping them out of the end zone.

One of the least talked about things about the Colts is the defense. Well unless you talk about Bob Sanders always being injured. If we are talking about the Colts, it’s Manning or Reggie Wayne or Dallas Clark or one of the no-name receivers being the hero of the game. Never the big bad Colt Defense. Not that they are world beaters on defense, but they get the job done and get after the quarterback with ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.

Gary Brackett joined 1070 the Fan in Indy and talked about the big win on Sunday, the way the defense is playing and the long introduction of the Ravens before the game in Baltimore.

Asked about his interception to seal the victory for the Colts:

“It’s a play that they ran earlier in the game.On the third down situation, Ray Rice comes out the backfield and they want to hit him up the seam.So they ran it again later, I recognized it and I wanted to make sure that I was in the throwing lane and make sure I don’t drop the ball this time.”

Asked if there is a relation between that play when he dropped into coverage and the similar play versus the Pats a week ago when he blitzed:

“It’s the exact same play.But this time it’s more of a bait and switch.Your baiting them into the blitz and then you switch up and drop into coverage.You can’t do the same thing every time, so we got a couple different variations that we use and it that particular time I dropped back.”

Asked about the goal line stand and the force the defensive line brought there:

“Antonio Johnson, Eric Foster and Daniel Muir did a great job. They were low on the offensive line; they created a new line of scrimmage.They were actually in their backfield and gave me and Clint the ability to run downhill. You know at the goal line you got to tackle and knock people back, and that’s what we were able to do.”